Furnace.



mi. 701,622. Patented May 27, I902. v. E. EDWARDS.

FURNACE.

(Applieationaflled Jan. '8, 1901.) (N0 Modal.)

2 Sheets-Sheet I,

- Patented May 27 I902.

2 Sheets-$heat 2.

FURNACE.

V. E. EDWARDS.

(Application filed Jan. 8, 1901.)

ml ll (No Model.)

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

VICTOR E. EDYVARDS, OF WVOROESTER, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR TO THE MORGAN CONSTRUCTION-COMPANY, OF WORCESTER, MASSACHUSETTS,

A CORPORATIOY.

FURNACE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 701,022, dated May 27, 1902. Application filed January 8,1901. Serial No. 42,503. (No model.)

To aZZ whom, it 11m concern:

Be it known that I, VICTOR E. EDWARDS, a citizen of the United States, residing at Worcester, in the county of Worcester and Commonwealth of Massachusetts, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Furnaces, of which the following is a specification,-

above the swinging doors 18, showing said doors in plan View; and Fig. 5 is a vertical 2o sectional view of the charging end of the furnace, showing a slight modification in the construction of the sole-plate and showing the swinging doors hinged to the angle-plate by which one end of the roof is supported.

Similar reference letters and figures refer to similar parts in the different views.

My present invention relates to a furnace for heating billets for rolling-mills, comprising a heating-chamber into which the billets go are entered at one end of the chamber and are pushed along by suitable pushing mechanism toward the opposite or delivery end of the chamber 5' and my invention relates to the peculiar construction of the furnace at the 3 5 charging or receiving end of the heatingchamber and to the method of introducing billets therein, as hereinafter described, the novel features being pointed out in the annexed claims.

Referring to the accompanying drawings, 1 denotes the chamber of a billet-heating furnace, having a floor 2 and roof 3, which may be of any well-known form of construction. At the charging or receiving end of the furnace an opening 4 is provided in the end wall of the furnace and transversely to the heating-chamber, extending substantially the entire width of the furnace, the end of the roof 3 over said opening being supported by a framework consisting in present instance of rolls 9 inside the I-beams 6.

a plate 5, supported by upright I-beams 6.

A portion of the floor of the furnace at the charging end is preferably formed of a metal sole-plate 7, provided with a series of openings 8, through which project the peripheries of the conveyer-rolls 9, rotated from a driving-shaft 10 by means of intermediate beveled gears 11 and 12. One of the side walls 13 14 has a restricted opening 15 to admit a billet 16 by an endwise movement upon the conveyer- 6c The rolls I are rotated to move the billet into proper position within the heating-chamber by means of well-known driving mechanism. (Not shown in the drawings.) Hinged upon rods 17, supported by'the upright I-beams 6, are one or more swinging doors 18, which extend within the heating-chamber above the billet as it rests upon the conveyer-rolls 9, with their free ends 19 bent downward and resting upon thefioor of the heating-chamber. The billet when entered into the space A between the I-beams dand doors 18 is pushed forward into the heating-chamber by means of a pushing mechanism consisting of a series of reciproeating pushing-bars 20, sliding upon the soleplate 7 and arranged to push the billet from the space A into the heating-chamber and beyond the free ends 19 of the swinging doors 18, the doors being lifted by the passage of the billet and falling again into their normal position by gravity when the pushing-bars 20 have been withdrawn. The pushing bars may be actuated by any well-known mechanism for the purpose; but in the present instance they are given a reciprocating motion by means of arms 21, attached to a rocking shaft 22, carrying an arm 23, which is connected by a link 24 to the reciprocating piston-rod 25 of a hydraulic cylinder 26. As 0 the billets are pushed past the doors 18 into the heating-chamber they form arow 27, which is advanced the thickness of one, billet as each successive billet is introduced into the furnace.

I am aware that it is not new to introduce billets into the charging end of a furnace by an endwise movement of the billet through a restricted opening in one of the side walls in the furnace. I am also aware that it has been in the end wall.

a common practice in furnaces of this description to provide a long transverse openingin the end wall of the furnace closed by swinging doors and adapted to receive the billet by a broadside movement through the opening In furnaces having a long transverse unobstructed opening in the end wall. designed to receive a billet by a broadside movement the roof above the opening is unsupported, while by my construction I secure adequate support for the roof at short intervals by means of the upright I-beams 6, forming a supporting-framework for the end of the roof, and the opening is substantially closed against the escape of heat by means of the hinged doors 18, with a space A between the doors and the Lbeams for the introduction of a billet by an endwise movement through the restricted opening 15. In the construction shown in the accompanying drawings the swinging doors 18 are hinged upon rods 17, supported by the upright I-beams 6; but saiddoors could obviously be hinged to the angle-plate 5, as shown in Fig. 5, or in place of the swinging doors 18 doors 28 might be hinged to plates 29, suitably supported by the framework of the furnace, as shown by broken lines in Fig. l of the drawings. I therefore do not wish to confine myself specifically to doors supported directly by the I-beams 6, the essential feature of this part of my invention consisting in providing one or more swinging doors by which the opening in the end wall in the heating-chamber is closed, with a space between said doors and an upright framework supporting the roof of the furnace sufficient to admit a billet in position to be acted upon by the pushing mechanism.

I consider the employment of the conveyerrolls 9 an advantage in placing the billet in proper position on the sole-plate, and so far as I am aware the employment of conveyerrolls to feed billets to the charging end of a furnace is broadly new; butit will be obvious that the conveyer-rolls might beomitted and the billet entered by a sliding movement of the billet over a solidsole-plate. Downward fiues 30 extend through the floor of the furnace, connecting with an escape-flue for the products of combustion in the usual manner of furnaces of this class.

What I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

1. In a furnace for heating billets provided with a transverse opening at the charging end of the furnace, of one or more supports for supporting the roof above said opening, one or more doors for closing said opening, with a space between said supports and said doors and an opening in one of the side walls of the furnace in alinement with said space for the introduction of a billet, substantially as described.

2. In a furnace for heating billets having a transverse opening at its charging end, of

one or more supports for supporting the roof above said opening, one or more swinging doors for closing said opening, with a space intervening between said doors and said supports for the billet, and an opening in the side wall opposite said space for the introduction of said billet into said intervening space, substantially as described.

3. In a furnace for heating billets having an opening at its charging end transverse to the heating-chamber, supports for supporting the roof above said opening, doors for closing said opening, with an intervening space between said supports and said doors, So

an opening in one of the side walls of the furnace in alinement with said intervening space for the introduction of a billet, and a soleplate in said intervening space, substantially as described.

4. In a furnace for heating billets provided with a transverse opening in the end wall at the charging end of the furnace, supports for the roof at the charging end of the furnace, said supports extending across said opening, swinging doors for closing said opening, with an intervening space for a billet between said supports and said doors, an opening in one of the side walls of the furnace in alinement with said intervening space for the introduction of a billet, and a pushing mechanism by which the billet is pushed past said doors, substantially as described.

5. In a furnace for heating billets having an opening in one of its side walls for the introduction of a billet by an endwise movement, of a sole-plate in the path of the billet provided with openings for conveyer-rol-ls, and a series of conveyer-rolls located beneath said sole-plate and projecting through said openings by which said billet is moved over said sole-plate, substantially as described.

6. In a furnace for heating billets having an opening in one end of its side walls for the introduction of a billet by an endwise movement upon the floor of the furnace, said fioor having openings for conveyer-rolls, of conveyer-rolls located in said openings and having their upper surfaces projecting slightly above the floor of the furnace by which said billet is moved over said floor, substantially as described.

7. The combination with a heating-chamber of a furnace, of a sole-plate on the plane of the fioor of the furnace, an opening in the side wall for the admission of a billet, a pushing mechanism acting through the end of the furnace for pushing the billets lengthwise the heating-chamber, and a swinging door between the heating-chamber and said soleplate, arranged to be raised by the action of the pushing mechanism, substantially as described.

8. The combination with a heating-chamber, of a roof 3, and a plate 5 supporting the end of said roof, upright beams 6 supporting said plate end forming a framework by which IIO the end of said roof is supported, swinging intervening space into the heating-chamber,

doors hinged to said framework and extend substantially as described. ing into said heating-chamber to provide an Dated this 3d day of January, 1901.

intervening space A between said doors and VICTOR E. EDWARDS. said beams, means for introducing a billet Witnesses: into said intervening space, and a pushing RUFUS B. FOWLER,

mechanism for pushing the billet out of said FLORENCE 0. 000K. 

